During your travel4seniors.com editor’s decade after retirement in the 1990s, I did Las Vegas four or five times a year. Hotel rooms were cheap or free, buffets cheap or free, entertainment cheap or free and round-trip flights cheap. That was then. This is now.

While my retirement income has gone up a total of only 10% in two decades, Las Vegas costs have increased considerably. Hotel rooms were $35, now $350. Buffets were $7, now $40. Shows were $25, now $200. Airfare to Las Vegas was $70, now $200.

Current tips, local taxes and other piled-on expenses greatly increase the already high cost of doing a Vegas vacation today. If you plan to gamble away your kids’ inheritances there, be prepared to pay a lot more. Or consider a day at a nearby Native American casino without all the inflated costs.